Recorded live in Tokyo, the disc serves up seven mainstays of this influential group’s repertoire in a recording that manages to be both spacious and intimate. And what’s most appealing is the impetus of the music; not that it it’s literally fast and furious throughout, of course, as the programme is judisciously balanced, but there’s a very obvious sense of propulsion even in the slow passages. […] Very good stuff.Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine

Dancing energy, irresistible forward momentum, delicate yet vigorous interactiveness – the Belonging band simply set the jazz standard for these qualities in subsequent decades of the music, and this album contains seven valuable and unequivocally enjoyable demonstrations of Jarrett’s musical genius...Chris Parker, London Jazz

Vibrantly mixed and mastered, it’s an archival recording that still sounds scarily relevant, as if preceded by its own influence. Mr. Jarrett plays with imperious precision even when he’s reaching for the ecstatic, and Jan Garbarek exudes iridescent poise on tenor saxophone. As for the rhythm team of Palle Danielsson on bass and Jon Christensen on drums, their turbulent flow would be worth the price of admission alone, if it weren’t so inseparable from the whole.Nate Chinen, The New York Times

The music here finds Jarrett in an uncannily inspired mood; he sounds like he has something to prove, and the interplay between him and Garbarek on driving pieces like ‚Personal Mountains’ and ‚Innocence’ creates flying sparks. It’ easy to forget that Jarrett used to be so supercharged, and he sounds , both digitally and vocally, motivated to keep up with the 97 octane superdrive provided by the rhythm section.George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly

It’s an immensely satisfying adventure, one that took about 90 minutes to make and 33 years to release. Still, what a treat it is to hear Sleeper awaken.Walter Tunis, Lexington Herald-Leader

The release of Sleeper is an enormous treat for everyone who enjoys seriously good jazz. Over the course of his long career, Keith Jarrett has shown a true artist’s propensity to try just about everything. Even a brief rundown of the various styles he has explored would fill a couple of pages. The European Quartet was a grouping that had a magical chemistry, wich is unquestionably captured at one of its highest points on Sleeper. This one is a must.Greg Barbrick, Blinded by Sound

By the mid-‘70s Keith Jarrett owned jazz, particularly after his 1975 solo album, The Köln Concert, the best-selling jazz piano recording in history. The American pianist, now 67, might well own jazz this year as well – kept on the shelf since its live recording in Tokyo in 1979, Sleeper is an out-of-nowhere triumph that might have been lost in the shuffle.Peter Goddard, Toronto Star

[...] Jarrett’s Scandinavian quartet of saxophonist Jan Garbarek, drummer Jon Christensen (both Norwegian), abd bassist Palle Danielsson (Swedish) was something else again. Each player’s technical mastery, combined with their collectively perfect attunedness to one other, an apparently effortless intimacy of interplay that sounds telepathic, made them special even in a career as briliant as Jarrett’s – he wrotes his best tunes for this band. [...] This was clearly a high-energy night for the group, Jarrett so full of ideas he seems barely able to cram them in fast enough – but the music is never cluttered, and he never steps on his bandmates’s toes. His deftness and grace are remarkable. Ditto the rest of this band. Ditto the rest of ‘Sleeper’.Richard Lehnert, Stereophile

Question: When is a previously unissued 33-year-old jazz masterpiece, one of the great jazz recordings of 2012?
Answer: When it’s the magnificent disc “Sleeper” which Keith Jarrett’s “European Quartet” recorded in Tokyo on April 16, 1979. This is not only the finest disc I’ve ever heard from Jarrett with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen, it’s as great as any saxophone quartet disc in Jarrett’s entire recording career.Jeff Simon, Buffalo News

The pianist's European quartet is often recalled for the reflective beauty of 'My Song'or'Belonging'. But this 1979 set recorded in Tokyo is a reminder of the visceral energy that this quartet with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen could stoke up.John Bungey, The Times

A superbly recorded 100+ minutes of free-flowing, rhythmically potent and melodically arresting music, all written by Jarrett and interpreted by one of the most lucid and characterful bands of its time. [...] the packaing has some rare and excellent black and white shots of the quartet in action. For me, it all adds up to a record of the year.Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal

Every Keith Jarrett release is an event, but this one, a previously unheard gem from a 1979 Tokyo concert by his European Quartet, is big news for the hyperactive prince of jazz piano.Jack Massarik, Evening Standard

Even now, with more than 50 other ECM recordings to his name, among them some of the most celebrated jazz albums of the post-Coltrane era, Jarrett stands out for his playing with the European quartet - joyous, exuberant flights of pure melodic invention, imbued with a bright-eyed romanticism that is rare in modern jazz. [...] Mixed earlier this year by Kongshaug and Eicher, the sound is pristine and the intervening decades have not dimmed the music's brilliance. Indeed, it sounds so fresh it might have been recorded yesterday, which is surely the mark of truly great music.Cormac Larkin, Irish Times